>>Without access to a timepiece, how would the various interested parties in and around Bucks Row have known that the nearest five minutes was 3.45 am?<<

Xmere and Paul were both (loosely) around 5 mins from there setting off point. Whether they had timepieces at home or were "knocked up", they would have been able to gauge the time from their perspective.

As for Llewellyn, as a doctor, it is not unreasonable to assume would own some kind of timepiece.

All the policemen involved had beat targets to meet and had a duty to be aware of the approximate time.

__________________dustymiller
aka drstrange

"Whenever an expert says something that bolsters the Lechmere theory, it is not my task to disprove him ..."Fisherman

Without access to a timepiece, how would the various interested parties in and around Bucks Row have known that the nearest five minutes was 3.45 am?

I guess by a kind of dead reckoning. You think back to the last time you saw a clock and estimate how long ago that was. How often was anyone's clock or watch checked against anything else? In an era when nobody owned a truly reliable timepiece all timings have to be seen as approximate. For that reason, any suspect theory which relies on exact timings is IMHO doomed from the outset.